Tag-marking and forming machine



y 24, 1955 K. J. BRAUN 2,708,873

TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE Filed Sept. 12, 1950 12 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. KARL d. BRAUN ATTORNEY y 24, 1955 K. J. BRAUN 2,708,873

TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE Filed Sept. 12, 1950 12 Sheets-Sheet 2 I INVENTOR.

KARL. d. BRAUN yw yev A TTORNE Y May 24, 1955 K. J. BRAUN 2,708,873 TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE Filed Sept. 12, 1950 12 Shets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR. KARL J. BRAUN M ww A TTOQNE Y y 24, 1955 K. J. BRAUN TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE l2 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Sept. 12, 1950 INVENTOR. KARL J. BRAUN g am 37% ATTORNEY.

y 24, 1955' K. J. BRAUN TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE 5 h e e .n S S t e e h S 2 1 Z 3L Filed Sept. 12, 1950 INVENTOR. KARL J. BRAUN grimmsfim ATTORNEY.

May 24, 1955 K. J. BRAUN TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE l2 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Sept. 12, 1950 INVENTOR. KARL J BRAUN ATTORNEY.

y 4, 1955 K. J. BRAUN 2,708,873

TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE Filed Sept. 12, 1950 12 Sheets-Sheet '7 INVENTOR. KARL J. BRAUN ATTORNEY.

y 24, 1955 K. J. BRAUN 2,708,873

TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE l2 Sheets-Sheet 8 Filed Sept. 12. 1950 JOHN DOEJ'OGS oco. mag

JOHN LOETOGS JOHN DOE T065 JOHN DOE T065 060. lNC. O O I -INC. O O COJNC- O 0 came. 0

INVENTOR. KARL J. BRAUN ATTORNEY.

May 24, 1955 K. J. BRAUN TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE l2 Sheets-Sheet 9 Filed Sept. 12, 1950 jig. 15.

RECEIWNG REPORT ORDER N2 /470 INVENTOR. KARL J. BRAUN a 2 C D U oooo0 g o 85 0 /.OQ0 61 O C o o o 5 O m o O 2 7 o 4 o O l C o 4 o 5 3 4 9 515mm 5 76M ATTORNEY May 24, 1955 K. J. BRAUN TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE 12 Sheets-Sheet 10 Filed Sept. 12, 1950 INVENTOR. KARL J. BRAUN QMSVQW ATTORNEY.

y 24, 1955 K. J. BRAUN TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE l2 Sheets-Sheet 11 Filed Sept. 12, 1950 INVENTOR. KARL J. BRAUN ATTORNEY.

y 4, 1955 K. J. BRAUN TAG-MARKING AND FORMING MACHINE l2 Sheets-Sheet 12 Filed Sept. 12, 1950 INVENTOR. KARL J. BRAUN am s. 7?,

ATTORNEY.

United States Patent TAG-Ft IAMENG AND FQRMlNG MACHINE arl J. Braun, Glenlrrook, Conn.

Application September 12, 1950, Serial No. 184,423

12 Claims. (Cl. 10119) The present invention relates generally to printing and perforating machines, and more particularly to a tagmarking machine devised to print and perforate information upon small tags, for example, small price tags such as those used in the apparel industry for keeping inventory records, billing, reordering, merchandising control, accounting, and similar procedures.

Thus the present invention comprehends the provision of an improved tag-marking machine in which information can be printed on the tag and the same information perforated in the tag in the form of coded holes; a machine in which both the printing and perforating setups are simultaneously effected through a single set-up of the keyboard; one having a novel counter mechanism to control the printing and perforating of identical information upon single part tags or upon multiple part tags, rom one setting of the keyboard; novel and positive tag feeding mechanism which is effective to feed a single tag or a continuous web or strip of printable and perforateable material; a machine having a tag cut-off mechanism which is controlled by the counter mechanism, and which is selectively effective to sever single part tags or multiple part tags from a continuous web or strip; a machine adapted to perforate coded holes in a tag in such a manner that the location of the punched holes relative to the marginal edges of the tag is not important when they are subsequently sensed by a reader to interpret the information represented by the punched holes; a machine which simultaneously prints and perforates the same information upon successively fed tags; and a tag-marking machine which is relatively small, rugged, compact, portable, fast and efficient in operation, and one which may be manufactured economically.

A specific machine embodying the present invention is shown in the accompanying drawings and described in this specification, but it is to be clearly understood that some of the features shown and described may be modified considerably without departing from the invention, and that wherever the term tag is used, it is intended to include cards, tickets, sheets, strips, continuous webs or any other suitable printable and perforateable material.

Still further objects and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a front perspective view of a tag-marking machine embodying the features of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a left side perspective view of the machine, the covers being removed to expose the base, side plates, ribbon feeding mechanism, and various other parts concealed by the covers.

Fig; 3 is a right hand perspective view of the machine, with the covers removed and with the keyboard section swung upwardly upon its pivot studs, to expose the punch section, type wheels, gag bars, and numerous other parts which are concealed from view when the keyboard section is in place as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the keyboard section with certain parts omitted for the sake of clarity.

Fig. 5 is a front end elevational view of Fig. 4 with certain parts omitted and the side plates shown in vertical section.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary detail View, partly in vertical section. of one of the actuator detents.

Fig. 7 is a side elevational view of the ribbon feeding mechanism.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of Fig. 7 including three tags beneath the ribbon and a portion of the tag feeding bars or arms.

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of the tag feeding bars and driving means therefore.

Fig. 10 is a perspective view illustrating two of the thirty keys and their associated parts.

Fig. ll is a perspective view of the counter mechanism and its relation with the tag cut-off mechanism.

Fig. 12 is an exploded perspective view of one counter dial assembly.

Fig. 13 is an exploded isometric view of the tag cutoff mechanism and control therefor.

Fig. 14 illustrates the progress of a tag through the machine and the sequential order in which it is punched and printed during six machine cycles.

Fig. 15 is a fragmentary view illustrating a receiving report.

Fig. 16 is a face view of a single part garment tag as it will appear after being punched and printed with information contained on the first line of the receiving report shown in Fig. 15.

Fig. 17 represents the four hole code used for the punches in the illustrated machine.

Fig. 18 is a right hand side elevation partly in vertical section of the machine with the covers removed, and with part of the base and motor broken away due to lack of space.

Fig. 19 is an enlarged off-set vertical sectional view taken on a plane indicated by line 19--19 of Fig. 21.

Fig. 20 is a fragmentary detail sectional view showing four punches one of which is actuated by its associated gag bar and pin to perforate a tag, and,

Fig. 2l is a perspective view showing particularly the punch mechanism and tag feeding mechanism.

General description it is believed that the detailed description of the present invention will be more readily understood if it is preceded by a brief general description of the functioning of the machine in the performance of printing and perforating information upon an original record which may be used for merchandise control, inventory records, all types of billing and factory inventory control, railroad and airline passenger ticket accounting, insurance premium control, and numerous other record keeping and'accoun'ting procedures, wherein information must be compiled,

An understanding of the general principles of operation of the machine may best be acquired by following the keyboard set-up and printing and perforating of a single part tag with reference to a specific example, such as the one diagrammed in Figs. 15 and 16. A conventional invoice or receiving report for a number of garments such as skating skirts is illustrated in Fig. 15, and in Fig. 16 is shown an enlarged view of a garment price tag which has been printed and perforated with certain information contained on the receiving report.

For the purpose of this general description, let it be assumed that one hundred single part tags are to be prepared for each skating skirt listed on the first line of the receivingreport B with printed and perforated information such as the date; manufacturers number; style of the skirts; color; order number; size; price, etc. In

3 the present machine, there are thirty columns of information and thirty keys in the keyboard, or one key for each column of information, with each column represented by a four-hole code, such for example, as the code shown in Fig. 17.

To enter information into the keyboard, for instance, the example above given, three key levers are set to represent the date 6-50, four key levers are set to represent the rnanufacturers number 9854, three key levers are set to values corresponding to the style 225, etc., until all desired information has been entered into the keyboard. When the keyboard set-up has thus been completed, the printing and perforating instrumentalities have also been simultaneously set accordingly. The counter is now set for 100 tags, and upon depression of the starting button 161 the machine will operate continuously until 100 identical tags have been printed and punched according to the information set in the keyboard.

It may be pointed out at this time that a completely printed and perforated single part tag is ejected from the machine at the end of each machine cycle after the sixth cycle for reasons later explained.

Framing An understanding of the mechanism of this tag-marking machine will be facilitated by first considering the framework. The machine has a main frame and several detachable units or assemblies.

The main frame has for its principal members a base plate 1 (Figs. 2 and 3), a left-hand side plate 2, a righthand side plate 3, and several transverse connecting bars 4 secured at their ends to the side plates 2 and 3.

The frame for the keyboard section, printing wheels,

differentially movable actuators, punch gags, transfer w Keyboard section As previously mentioned, from one to thirty columns of information may be entered into the keyboard of the present machine. Accordingly, there are thirty sliding keys, all of which project upwardly through narrow slots 10 in the keyboard plate 11 as best shown in Fig. 2. The plate 11 is spaced above and parallel to the keyboard frame plates and 6, and is supported by a plurality of spacers 12 suitably secured between the plate and several of the connecting bars 7, as best illustrated in Fig. 18. For convenience in describing the thirty keys, they will be considered in groups of six, and with reference to Fi gs. 2, 4 and 5, the first group of six keys are designated by reference numeral 13, the second group of six keys by numeral 14, the third group of six keys by numeral 15, the fourth group of six keys by numeral 16, and the fifth group of six keys by numeral 17. Each key in the groups 13 to 16 respectively has a differentially movable actuator or slide 18, and each key in the group 17 has an associated differentially movable actuator or slide 20. Each actuator slide 18 has rack teeth 21 on its lower edge and these teeth are in permanent mesh with the gear teeth tively, are supported and guided horizontally by four of the cross bars 7 and guided vertically by combs 26, the latter being attached to the lower cross bars 7, by screws 27, as best shown in Fig. 5.

It will now be observed from Figs. 3 and 4, that the present machine has twenty-four actuators 18, each having an extension transfer rack 28 connected therewith and provided with rack teeth 30 on its upper edge. The teeth 30 are permanently meshed with an associated transfer pinion 31 fast on a pinion shaft 32. Similarly, there are twenty-four differentially movable gag bars 33, or one gag bar for each actuator 13. Each gag bar 33 has an extension transfer rack 34 provided with rack teeth 35 which mesh with an associated transfer pinion 36 on its respective pinion shaft 32.

It will now be understood that whenever an actuator 18 or 26 is moved differentially by its associated key lever, an associated gag bar 33 or 44 will be differentially moved in unison therewith, through the associated transfer extension racks 28, 34, 42 and 45, transfer pinions 31 and 36 and pinion shafts 32 respectively, as best illustrated in Fig. 10.

Each actuator slide 20 has rack teeth 37, cut in its lower edge, which mesh with gear teeth 38 of its respective type wheel 40, as clearly shown in Fig. 10. The upper edge of each actuator slide 20 is provided with eleven V-shaped detent notches 41, which cooperate with one of the spring pressed detents 25, to selectively hold said actuator slide in any one of eleven positions to which it may be shifted by its associated key 17. Each actuator slide 26 has an extension transfer rack 42 connected therewith having rack teeth 43 on its upper edge. The teeth 43 are in mesh with an associated transfer pinion 31 fast on its particular pinion shaft 32.

Printing section By a study of the tag shown in Fig. 16 it will be observed that printin takes place at three different stations or lines, indicated at C, D and E, and each line is printed during a different cycle of the machine as will presently appear in connection with Fig. 14. The present machine has twenty-four printing wheels designated 23 (see Fig. 3) and six printing wheels designated 40. All of the printing wheels 23 are rotatably journaled upon a common shaft 4 7 one end of which is mounted in a block 48 secured to the lower edge of side plate 5, and the other end of which is mounted in a plate 50 mounted between the bars 7 as best shown in Fig. 3. The six printing wheels designated 40 are rotatably journaled upon a common shaft 52 which is supported by a similar block 48 attached to the lower edge of frame plate 51 at one end and at the other end by the plate 50. Shaft 52 is located forwardly in the machine relative to shaft 47, or to the right of shaft 47 as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 8, in order to space the printing effected by printing wheels 40 from the printing effected by printing wheels 23.

In order to effect printing at two different places, or stations C and D upon the tags, by the twenty-four printing wheels 23, the type characters 53 on twelve of the twenty-four wheels are radially spaced from the type character 54 on the remaining twelve printing wheels as best shown in Fig. 3

Ribbon feed and reversing mechanism As above mentioned, printing takes place at three different zones upon each tag as clearly indicated at C, D and E, and for this reason the inked ribbon 55 (see Fig. 8) is fed in one direction beneath the printing wheels 23, and in an opposite direction beneath the printing wheels 40, as will be understood from the following detailed description of the ribbon mechanism. As best illustrated in Figs. 2, 7 and 8, two shafts 55' and 57, projecting outwardly from the plate 4-9, rotatably support the ribbon spools 58 and 5% and ratchet wheels 61 and 61 respectively. Ratchet wheel 60 is fixed for rotation with ribbon F spool 58 and ratch t wheel 61 is fixed for rotation with ribbon spool 59. When spool 53 is driven to wind up the ribbon 55, spool 59 is free to pay out the ribbon, and conversely when spool 59 is driven to wind up the ribbon, spool 53 is free to pay out the ribbon.

The ratchet wheels 6% and at are driven by feed pawls 62 and 63 respectively, but the construction is such that only one ratchet wheel can be driven at a time as will now be described. Pawl @2 and the upper end of link 64, are pivoted at 65' to driven lever 66, and the lower end of link so is pivoted upon a stud 6'7 projecting wardly from plate Also pivotally mounted upon stud 6'7 is a lever 6% having two arms 7% and '71. A spring '72. has one end attached to arm 71 and its other end anchored upon a stud "i3 projecting from the driven lever 66. This spring serves to normally bias the arm towards the ribbon spool 55.

Similarly, pawl 63 and the upper end of link 74 are pivoted at 75 to the driven lever 66, and the lower end of said link 74 is pivoted upon a stud also projecting sidewardly from the plate 49. A second lever 7'? having two arms 78 and is pivotally mounted upon the stud 76, and the arm '78 is normally biased toward the spool 59 by a spring 81, the upper end of which spring is anchored to stud 82 on lever 65, and its lower end is connected to arm Ell, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 7.

A pair of detent pawis $3 and 84, pivotally mounted upon the plate 45 by studs 85, cooperate with the feed pawls 62 and 63 respectively to prevent any retrograde movement of the ratchet wheels -60 and 61 while they are being driven. Each do out pawl 83-4 is positioned above its respective feed pawl 52-t=3, and the construction is such that when a feed pawl is held inoperative by the toggle arm 86, its respective detent pawl is also held inoperative as clearly illustrated in Fig. 7. The toggle arm 36 is pivoted upon a stud 8'7, which projects from the driven lever 66, and a U-shaped spring serves to hold the toggle arm 86 either on one side or the other of pivot stud until its position is reversed by the action of one or the other of the two ears and 89 of arms 71 and 3t respectively. The spring 33 is anchored at its two ends by pins 90 and 91, pin 9% being mounted on the toggle arm 8:? and pin 91 mounted on the driven lever 66. The feed pawls 62-53 are normally urged into engagement with their respective ratchet wheels 60 and 61 by a spring 92 the ends of which are anchored to the feed pawls as clearly shown.

As illustrated in Pig. 7, the ribbon feed mechanism is set for feeding the ribbon 55 from spool 53 to spool 59. With the parts in this position it will be observed that toggle arm 36 is holding the feed pawl 2 and detent pawl 33 inoperative, or free from their ratchet 68, while feed pawl 63 and detent pawl 34 are permitted to engage with their ratchet 61.

To oscillate the driven lever Go there is provided a drive arm 93 which is pivoted intermediate its ends upon a stud 94 mounted on the left lde plate 2. The lower end of arm 93 carries a ro er 95 which is held engaged with the periphery of a cam f5 by a spring 98. The cum 96 is fast upon main shaft 7 for rotation therewith. The upper end of arm 93 is pivotaily connected to drive lever es by a shoulder stud 9?.

It will now be clear that whenever main shaft 9'! is rotated, arm 93 will be oscillated upon its pivot 94 by cam 96 and roller 95, and lever 6d will be oscillated fore and aft of the machine. As before mentioned, when the ribbon drive is set in the position shown in Fig. 7, ribbon 55 is being wound upon spool 55 and unwound from spool 58. It will therefore be ob ions that as the ribbon 555 gradually bui 1: upon spool 59, arm 78 will cause lever 77 to rotate counterclockwise upon its. pivot '76, and as the ribbon gradually removed from spool 52., spring 72 will cause lever r58 to rotate counterclockwise upon its pivot 67 to move ear 7* upwardly into the path of finger portion lllh, of toggle arm Accordingly, when car 7? is elevated into-the path of finger 10G, toggle arm 35 is caused to flip clockwise on its pivot 87 to disengage feed pawl 63 and detent pawl 24 from ratchet 61, and engage feed pawl 62 and detent pawl 83 with ratchet so, thus reversing the ribbon feed so that ribbon 55 will now be wound upon spool 5 and unwound froin spool 59.

T (1g feeding mechanism Before describing the tag feeding mechanism in detail, a brief escription of one form of tag will be given in connection with Figs. 14- and 16. The tags to be used with the present machine are preferably, but not necessarily, supplied in continuous strip or web form, as shown in Fig. l, with the tags severed from one another except for the lands indicated at 136 as shown in Fig.

Each tag may be supplied with an attaching string 7, looped through the hole 1%, and preprinted with y desl'ed data such as a company name indicated at in the present example, with the Word Size bracket as clearly shown in Fig. 16. The string of each tag has its left hand corner cut off as indicated at Elli, and both corners at the opposite end are cut as indicated at 312. By cutting oil the corners of the tags in this fashion, spaced notches are formed to enable :1 continuous web or strip of tags to be intermittently an successively fer. through the machine by the tag feedinmechanism, now to be described in detail, attention being directed especially to Fig. 9.

A pair of claw-line feeding bars 113 and 114, having spaced teeth H5 and 116 respectively, are moved toward and from each other fore and aft of the machine and reciprocnted in unison tranverscly of the machine, when feeding tags through the machine. The tag feeding bars 13.3 and lid are provided with stub shafts 117 and 113 respectively. The stub shafts 1E7 slidably fit within slots in the upper end of a levers 119 and 129, which levers are pivotaliy supported at their lower end by a cross shaft 121 mounted in the side frames 2 and 3. Similarly, the stub shafts 113 slidabiy fit within slots in the upper end of a second pair of levers 122 and 123, which are fast upon a suitably ournaled transverse shaft 12d. A link 125 pivotaily connected at one end to lever 119, above the pivot shaft 123, pivotally connected at its other end to lever 122 below the pivot shaft 12, serves to move the feeding bars 113-114 toward and from each other Whe levers lift, 26, E22 and 123 are rocked on their respective pivot 5 means for rocking the levers i19-12fl and l22123 comprises a roller 126 rotatably mounted near the lower end of lever and held against the periphery of cam 1".-, fast on the main shaft W, by a spring 128. It will now be understood that during each revolution of main shaft and earn 127, feeding bars 113-114 will be caused to move towards each other to engage and feed the tags T, and be moved away from each other to disengage the tags.

in addition to the feeding bars being moved longitudinally of the machine, as just described, they are also simultaneously moved transversely of the machine by the following mechanism. A cam 129 fast on main shaft 97, adjacent earn 127, drives a roller 130 which is rotatably carried by the lower end of gear segment 131. This segment is fast on one end of a longitudinal shaft 132 and its gear teeth are in permanent sliding mesh with a rack 133 fixed to the feeding bar 113. A second gear seg- .ent r34, fast on the opposite end of shaft 132, has teeth which are in permanent sliding mesh with a rack 135 fixed to the feeding bar 11 4.

Besides the fore and aft and side to side motion of bars 113 and 114, just described, they have a third movement in an up and down direction during tag feeding, in a manner now disclosed in connection with the moving parts of the punch section of the machine.

Punch section It has been previously pointed out that the present machine is designed for thirty columns of information, and that this information is represented by a four hole code as indicated in Fig. 17. It follows therefore that the present machine has one hundred and twenty punches 145 and a like number of pins 135. The punches and their associated pins are arranged in two distinct groups, one group having ninety six punches and a like number of pins and the other group having twenty four punches and a like number of pins. In the present embodiment, the group of twenty four punches are utilized to punch the price, in code, at the bottom of the tags T as shown in Figs. 14 and 16 while the group of ninety six punches are used to punch the other data in the tag, in code, such as manufacturer number, date, etc. as previously described. This arrangement of punches is merely illustrative and is not to be interpreted in a limiting sense.

Referring now to Figs. 19, 20 and 21, the pins designated 135, are mounted for axial movement between a pair of horizontal plates 136, fastened to a pair of vertical plates 137, by screws 138. The plates 137 are in turn supported by spacers 139 (Fig. 21) attached to the punch block 141). Mounted between the bottom plate 136 and punch block 140 is a stationary plate 141 carried by a pair of cross bars 142. The bars in turn, are supported by and fixed to the machine side plates 2 and 3 respectively as shown best in Fig. 21. A stripper plate 143 is secured to the underside of stationary plate 141 by screws 144 to cooperate with the headed end of the punches 145 to withdraw them from the tags T in a manner well known to those skilled in the art.

Punch block 140 is supported by and spaced from a bed plate 146 which in turn is carried by a box-like frame F comprising two end walls 147 and three transverse walls 148, 149 and 151} respectively. A slide 151 (see Figs. 18 and 21) is provided for each end wall 147, and both slides are mounted for vertical sliding movement within guideways 152, carried by the side plates 2 and 3 respectively. lowering the slides 151 for each revolution of main shaft 97. The slides in turn raise and lower the box-like frame F, feed arms 113-114, punch block 140 and pin frame 136-137. This means comprises a pair of levers 153 pivotally mounted upon studs 9 projecting inwardly from the main side plates 2 and 3 respectively. The bifurcated ends of levers 153 have rollers 154 which cooperate with the periphery of complementary cams 155 respectively fast on the main shaft 97. The forward forked end of levers 153 operatively receive pins 156 projecting inwardly from the lower end of slides 151.

Main shaft Main shaft 97 is rotatably journaled in suitable bearings carried by the main side plates Zand 3 respectively, and is driven by an electric motor M through a suitable worm 157, worm gear 158 and a clutch 159 of any conventional design. The worm is keyed to motor shaft 1611 and the worm gear is fixed with a part of the clutch 159 and free on main shaft 97. The construction is such that when the starting button 161 is depressed, a bell crank 162 is caused to rock clockwise upon its pivot 163 as viewed in Fig. 18 to lower link 164 thus engaging the clutch 159 to operatively connect motor M with main shaft 97.

Counter mechanism The counter mechanism of the present machine is designed to control the number of tags to be printed and perforated with information set up in the keyboard. As

to whether these tags are single part tags, double part Means are provided for positively raising and The counter unit shown in Figs. 11 and 12 comprises three dials indicated at 166, each of which have numerals zero to nine on their periphery. Each of the three dials has a ten toothed ratchet 167 and a pair of discs 168 and 169 fixed for rotation therewith. The disc 169 and its notch 171 serve as the carry control between the dials 166 in the conventional and well known manner. When dials 166 are set in their zero position, the toothed ends of three levers 172 are engaged with the notches in discs 16S, and said levers are made rigid with one another to rock in unison upon a shaft 173 projecting inwardly from the right hand side plate 3. The right hand lever 172 has a downwardly and rearwardly projecting arm 1'74, the free end of which is bifurcated to receive a stud 175, carried by a two armed lever 176, the latter being pivotally mounted upon a shaft 177 also carried by the right hand side plate 3. The lower arm of lever 176 has an inwardly projecting pin 178 which serves to engage and disengage the feed end of lever 179, with a feeding ratchet wheel 186. Lever 179 is held against pin 178 by a spring 1119. It may now be pointed out that when all of the dials 166 are set at zero, the feeding end of lever 179 is held out of engagement with ratchet wheel 180 by pin 178, and that when any one or all of the dials 166 are moved out of zero position, levers 172 will be rocked counterclockwise on their pivot shaft 173, which in turn rocks the two-armed lever 176 clockwise on its pivot shaft 177 to engage the feed end of lever 179 with ratchet wheel 189.

Fixed for rotation with ratchet wheel 18%, on shaft 177, are four cams 131, 182, 133 and 184 respectively as best shown in Figs. 11 and 13. Cam 181 has twelve notches on its periphery, cam 182 six notches, cam 183 four notches and cam 184 three notches as clearly shown in the exploded view Fig. 13. Cooperating with the four cams, are four levers 135, 136, 187 and 188 respectively which are pivoted at 189 to the vertical arms of hell cranks 1911 and 193 respectively as shown in Fig. 11. The levers to 188 are beneath and in vertical alignment with said cams 181 to 184 respectively, and their bifurcated ends receive a shaft 194 carried by the bell cranks 195. The bell cranks 195 are pivotally mounted upon a shaft 196 extending inwardly from right hand side frame 3, and carry a second shaft 197 which actuates a notched cutoff slide 198 for controlling the tag cut-off punches 199 as will presently be explained.

By a study of Figs. 11 and 13 it will be seen that a four sided cam 20f fast upon the shaft of dial 165, has four staggered cam faces 201 spaced 90 apart which are beneath and m vertical alignment with the bell cranks to 193 respectively. The construction is such that when single part tags are desired, dial 165 is set at the number one position, when two part tags are desired, dial 165 is set at the number two position, and so on. To illustrate, when dial 165 is set at the number one position, the cam surface 261 in alignment with bell crank 190 rocks said bell crank clockwise (Fig. 11) on its pivot shaft 202 which in turn raises the toothed end of lever 185 into operative engagement with one of the twelve notches in cam 181. It will now be clear that each time the toothed end of lever 185 passes from one notch in cam 181, to the next notch, lever 185 will be rocked upon its pivot 189 and in turn will rock bell cranks counterclockwise to shift the notched cut-off slide 198. Whenever the notches 2113 in slide 198 are moved out of registration with the cut-01f punches 199 (which position is shown in Fig. 11), a tag is severed from the web being fed into the right hand side of the machine.

The feed lever 179, previously referred to, is elevated and lowered for each revolution of main shaft 97 by cam fast on the main shaft 97 and a roller 2115 on one end of a pivoted lever 296, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 11.

It is desirable to stop feeding the continuous web of tags when all of the counter dials 166 reach their zero or home position. This is accomplished by lifting the entering end of the continuous web out of the path of feeding bars 113 and 114 by mechanism now described in connection with Fig. 11. The entering end of continuous web W passes between a pair of parallel plates 207 and 208 mounted upon one end of a lever 209 which lever is pivoted upon the side plate 3. The lever 2&9 is held in its lowered position by a pivoted latch 210, and a link 211 has its forward end pivotally connected to the upper end of said latch 21%, and its rearward end pivotally connected with one arm of a bell crank 212 which is pivoted upon the cam shaft 177. The bell crank 212 has a second arm 213 in vertical alignment with the top end of feed lever 179. It will be remembered that when any counter dial 166 is away from Zero or home position, feed lever 179 is engaged with ratchet 136, and when said lever is thus engaged with said ratchet, it will clear the arm 213 during its upward or feeding stroke. However, as soon as all of the dials 166 are normalized, or reach their Zero home position, pin 178 will act to disengage lever 179 from ratchet 180 and move said lever beneath arm 213, so that upon its next upward or feeding stroke, it will strike arm 213 thereby rocking bell crank 212 counterclockwise on its pivot 17?. This movement of bell crank 212, through link 211, rocks latch 219 counterclockwise on its pivot, to release lever 209, whereupon it is elevated by a spring 214. This elevating, or upward movement of lever 299, carries the plates 207 and 208 upwardly thereby lifting the entering end of continuous web W, free of the feeding bars 113 and 114.

It has been previously explained that whenever any of the counter dials 166 are manually moved away from their home or Zero position, lever 179 is engaged with ratchet wheel 180 to rotate the cams 181 to 134 respectively. The means for returning the dials to zero position, digit by digit will now be described in connection with Fig. ll.

The construction of this mechanism is such that the counter dials are actuated only upon movement of the bell cranks 195 and cut-01f slide 198. Thus, if dial 165 is set for a single part tag, the counter and cut-oft slide will be operated once for every machine cycle, but when the dial 165 is set at the number two position, for a two part tag, the counter and cut-off slide will be operated only once for every two machine cycles and so forth. In this Way the counter can be set for a definite predetermined number of tags regardless of whether they are to be one, two, three or four part tags according to the setting of dial 165.

The counter shown in the present embodiment includes but three counter dials 166. These dials will be considered as the units, tens and hundreds positions. For eachdial 166 there is a feed pawl 216 to feed its associated ratchet 167. The pawls 216 are pivotally mounted upon a shaft 217 carried by a U-shaped lever 218, and the feeding end of each pawl is held in engagement with its ratchet 167, by a spring 219, one end of which is anchored, to the lower end of the pawl and the other end to a rod 220 carried by the lever 213. The U-shaped lever 21% is pivotally supported by an elongated shaft 221 projecting inwardly from the right hand side plate 3. An adjustable link 222 is pivotally connected at its upper end to arm 174 and at its lower end to shaft 197 carried by the bell cranks. 195. A second link 223 is connected between the shaft 194 and rod 220. Each ratchet 167 has a spring pressed detent pawl 224 which serves to hold the counter dials 166 against any retrograde movement between feeding strokes of the pawls 216, and to the position to which they are manually set for counting purposes.

When any dial 166 is moved out of zero position, link 222 will act to rock bell cranks 195 counterclockwise on their pivot shaft 196 to position the notches 203 of cut off slide 198 above the cut-oiT punches 199. Thus said punches are disabled until the slide is again moved by action of one of the bell cranks 190 to 193 according to the setting of dial 165.

19 It will now be clear that the counter dials are returned toward their zero or home position one digit each time the cut-off slide 198 is moved to its cut-oif position by one of the levers 185 to 138 respectively through the bell cranks 195.

Locating holes It has been previously mentioned that location of the punched coded holes, with respect to the marginal edges of the tag, is of little importance during subsequent sensing by a reader to interpret the information represented by said punched holes. To this end a plurality of punches 225 (shown by full and dotted lines in Fig. 19) are provided to punch a plurality of locating holes 226 (see Fig. 16) in each tag or in each part of each tag in the event the tag is made up of multiple parts. The punches 225 are rigidly mounted in the stationary plate 141, as shown in Fig. 19, and are arranged to punch a series of locating holes 226 every time the bed plate 146 is elevated, or for every machine cycle.

Operation In describing the operation of the present tag-marking machine let it be assumed that one hundred single part tags are to be punched and printed with information contained on the first line of receiving report B shown in Fig. 15. An operator proceeds by setting up this information in the teyooard. This is accomplished by differentially shifting the required keys 13 to 17 respectively to the value positions representing such information. This diiferential shifting of the keys automatically positions the printing wheels and sets the punch gags for proper printing and perforating of identical information upon each and every one of the one hundred tags to be made. Next the operator sets the counter dials 166 to read one hundred which automatically engages the feed lever 179 with ratchet 1813 as previously explained. Lever 209 is then lowered, by depression of fingerpiece 215 to align the plates 207 and 238 and web W with the feeding arms 113 and 114 respectively.

Dial is then set to position one and the starting button 161 is depressed to engage the clutch 159. During the first six machine cycles the leading tag will be punched and printed in the steps shown from right to left in Fig. 14. in other words it takes six machine cycles to complete the first tag but thereafter a complete one part tag is ejected from the machine until the counter dials reach tion, at which time the tag feeding operation is stopped as heretofore explained. It will now be clear that whenever dial 165 is set for two part tags, the counter and tag cut-oif mechanisms operate only once for every second machine cycle, and when dial 165 is set for three part tags, the counter and tag cut-orf mechanisms operate only once for every three machine cycles etc.

While a particular embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous variations and modifications may be made in the particular construction without departing from the underlying principles of the invention. It is therefore desired, by the following claims, to include within the scope of the invention, all such variations and modifications whereby substantially the results of the invention may be obtained by the use of substantially the same or equivalent means.

The invention claimed is:

l. In a printing and perforating machine, the combination of: selective printing and perforating devices simultaneously settable to print and perforate selective indicia one or more times on a single or multiple tag unit severed from a web which is intermittently fed through the machine, said machine comprisin! intermittent feeding means for said web and tag unit; settable counter means to control the number of simultaneous printing and perforating impressions in varying cycles of operation to form said single or multiple tag unit; and means intermittently operable to sever the single or multiple tag after every machine cycle their zero or home posiunits from said Web under control of said settable counter means, the intermittent feeding means continuing to feed the last completed single or multiple tag unit out of the machine after feed of the Web to the printing and perforating devices is discontinued.

2. In a printing and perforating machine, the combination of: selective printing and perforating devices simultaneously settable to print and perforate selective indicia one or more times on a single or multiple tag unit which is intermittently fed through the machine, said machine comprising intermittent feeding means for said single or multiple tag unit; settable counter means to control the number of simultaneous printing and perforating impressions in varying cycles of operation imparted to said single or multiple tag unit; the intermittent feeding means continuing to feed the last completed tag unit out of the machine after feed of unprinted and unperforated tag units to the printing and perforating devices is discontinued; and additional perforating means being provided to perforate at least two locating holes in the tag unit in definite relation to the printed and perforated information applied to the tag unit by said printing and perforating devices.

3. in a printing and perforating machine, the combination of: selective printing and perforating devices simultaneously settable to print and perforate selective indicia one or more times on a single or multiple tag unit severed from a web which is intermittently fed through the machine, said machine comprising control means to set the machine for producing a single tag unit or multiple tag unit; intermittent feeding means for said web and tag unit; settable counter means to control the number of simultaneous printing and perforating impressions in varying cycles of operation to form said single or multiple tag unit; means to sever the single or multiple tag unit from said Web under control of said settable counter means; the intermittent feeding means continuing to feed the last completed tag unit out of the machine after feed of the web to the printing and perforating devices is discontinued; and additional perforating means being provided to perforate at least two locating holes in each tag unit in definite relation to the printed and perforated information applied to the tag unit by said printing and perforating devices.

4. In a printing and perforating machine, the combination of: selective printing and perforating devices simultaneously settable to print and perforate selective indicia one or more times on a single or multiple tag unit severed from a web which is intermittently fed through the machine, said machine comprising control means to set the machine for producing a single tag unit or multiple tag unit; intermittent feeding means for said web and tag unit; settable counter means to control the number of simultaneous printing and perforating impressions in varying cycles of operation to form said single or multiple tag unit; means intermittently operable to sever the single or multiple tag units from said web under control of said settable control means; the intermittent feeding means continuing to feed the last completed tag unit out of the machine after feed of the web to the printing and perforating devices is discontinued in each cycle of operation; and additional perforating means being provided to perforate at least two locating holes in the tag unit in definite relation to the printed and perforated information applied to the tag unit by said printing and perforating devices.

5. In a printing and perforatim machine, the combination of: selective printing and perforating devices simultaneously settable to print and perforate selective indicia one or more times on a single or multiple tag unit severed from a web which is intermittently fed through the machine, said machine comprising settable control means including a manually settable dial to condition the machine for producing single or multiple tag units; intermittent feeding means for said web and tag unit; settable counter means to control the number of simultaneous til Cat

printing and perforating impressions in varying cycles of operation to form said single or multiple tag unit; means intermittently operable to sever the single or multiple tag units from said Web under control of said manually settable dial; the intermittent feeding means continuing to feed the last completed tag unit out of the machine after feed of the Web to the printing and perforating devices is discontinued in each cycle of operation; and additional perforating means being provided to perforate at least two locating holes in the tag unit in definite relation to the printed and perforated information applied to the tag unit by said printing and perforating devices.

6. In a printing and perforating machine, the combination comprising: printing and perforating devices; means to set said devices to simultaneously print and perforate one or more times on a partially severed web which is intermittently fed into the machine; intermittent feeding means for said web; a settable counter for predetermining the number of printing and perforating impressions to be made upon said web by said printing and perforating devices; cut-off means controlled by said counter to sever the web to form single or multiple tag units; and means cooperating with said counter and feeding means to feed the completed tag units from the machine after feed of the web to the printing and perforating devices has been stopped.

7. In a printing and perforating machine of the class described, the combination comprising: selective printing and perforating devices including rotatable printing wheels and a plurality of rows of punches, said devices simultaneously settable to print and perforate single or multiple tag units severed from a Web which is intermittently fed into the machine; intermittent feeding means for said web and tag units; a manually settable counter for predetermining the number of tag units to be printed and perforated by said devices; means controlled by said counter to sever said tag units from said web; and means operable to continue the feed of the completed tag units from the machine after feed of the web into the machine has been stopped.

8. In a printing and perforating machine as set forth in claim 7 wherein additional punching means is provided to form at least two locating holes in each tag unit simultaneously with and in definite relation to the printed and perforated information applied to said tag units by the printing and perforating devices.

9. In a printing and perforating machine as specified in claim 1, in which the intermittent feeding means for said web and tag unit includes a pair of feed bars with means to move said bars into gripping engagement with said web and tag unit during their feeding stroke and out of engagement with said web and tag unit during their return stroke.

10. In a printing and perforating machine as specified in claim 2, in which the additional perforating means, for perforating at least two locating holes in the tag unit in definite relation to the printed and perforated information applied to the tag unit, is actuated simultaneously with said first named perforating devices.

11. Apparatus as in claim 2, in which the settable counter means includes a plurality of rotatable and selectively settable counter dials which, upon return to the home position, after being moved therefrom, act to initiate means for discontinuing the feed of said web into the machine.

12. In a printing and perforating machine of the class described, the combination of: selective printing and perforating devices simultaneously settable to print and perforate selective indicia one or more times on a single or multiple tag unit which is intermittently fed through the machine, said machine comprising intermittent feeding means for said single or multiple tag unit; settable counter means to control the number of simultaneous printing and perforating impressions in varying cycles of operation imparted to said single or multiple tag unit; the

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,104,829 Ray July 28, 1914 1,183,529 Brasseur May 16, 1916 1,855,764 Laencher Apr. 26, 1932 14 Cunningham July 4, Laencher Jan. 1, Maul May 21, McCain May 26, Handley Jan. 26, Carroll Apr. 13, Henry Jan. 4, Kohnle June 14, Daly Aug. 8, Benes Dec. 9, Turner Mar. 27, Weimont Aug. 27, Sundstrand Dec. 2, Harrold Dec. 18, 

